It was while she was lost in thought that the eight-year-old girl behind her had already walked up to the young boy and embraced him, pulling the frightened boy into her arms.
It took a while before the child recovered from his shock, both of them casting uneasy glances at their older sister.
Just now, their older sister had looked so striking, just like a female General!
Moreover, their older sister had fought for them!
This was simply unimaginable in a dream.
The two children sneakily observed Bai Junjun's silhouette and suddenly noticed that her palms were dripping with fresh blood.
The little girl exclaimed, "Older sister, you're bleeding."
The call from the little girl suddenly brought Bai Ren's attention back.
Glancing at her own wound, it was merely a scratch, and she didn't mind it.
But these two children...
Bai Ren indifferently glanced at the kids in front of her, unsure how to deal with them.
These were Bai Sasa, ranked eleventh, the sister of the concubine-born daughter, and Bai Lingyu, ranked twelfth, her brother.
As for the siblings and a string of concubines in between, they had all died in successive turmoils, and the once First Shi Clan of Baiju Country, Bai Yang Clan, was now left with just the three of them.
"I'm fine." Bai Ren said indifferently.
Bai Lingyu's eyes slowly reddened; it was because of him that the older sister got hurt.
As if to reflect Bai Lingyu's mood, the gloomy sky grew even heavier, and a torrential rain seemed imminent.
Bai Ren looked at the two skinny, pallid kids with some headache.
She was the leader of the base, usually only teaming up with adult Special Ability Users to go out and scavenge for supplies, and it had been a very long time since she dealt with such weaklings.
Yet these two kids, one eight and the other five, in such a chaotic world, leaving them behind was akin to killing them.
Even though survival was difficult in The Apocalypse, her base still upheld the principles that lives should not be harmed whimsically and teammates should not be abandoned at will.
Moreover, these were children who shared half her blood.
In this chaotic world, it was a kind of fate that they had survived until she showed up.
Bai Ren sighed resolutely, "Stop crying, let's quickly find a place to take shelter from the rain."
Hearing their older sister's words, Bai Lingyu hurriedly collected the tears on the brink of falling, and Bai Sasa also cooperatively helped her little brother stand up.
Actually, they were born from different concubines, and in the Old Imperial Capital, they abided by the distinction between men and women and didn't interact much. Only during days of fleeing for their lives did they gradually develop a sense of "familial affection."
The siblings found themselves in a scorched forest, which clearly had once been a battlefield.
Now the Northern Lands were preparing for war, and everywhere there were officers seizing able-bodied men.
To avoid the officers, refugees avoided the official roads on their journey south, specifically passing through battlefield ruins or deep forests.
Though the path was more complicated, at least they could hide from the officers and the bandits.
You see, fleeing might still offer a slim chance of survival, but being seized for military service was truly a dead end, serving merely as human shields.
Bai Ren glanced in the direction where the refugee group had left and decided to turn back temporarily.
After all, the conflict they had just caused was major, and perhaps another encounter would be a matter of life and death.
It was wise to avoid them for the time being.
Seeing that Bai Ren intended to head back, Bai Sasa looked worried, "Older sister, it's dangerous to go back. There's the Xuanwei Army. You should listen to the Ninth Prince and go to Biluo City first."
The Ninth Prince?
An exceptionally handsome face automatically emerged in Bai Ren's mind.
They had watched many sunsets together from the city walls and had also released lanterns together during the Lantern Festival... they had done many romantic things as young men and women, but those memories were all from three years ago.